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    Embroidery on footwear

    By Irina, in Machine embroidery materials and technology, , 1 comment, 3,151 views
    Original text by Lisa Prass 
    Inspired by reading the websites 
    Footwear manufacture, whether of sport, casual or indoor variety, always has been and always will be a promising business. The customers may deny themselves food but won't go to work barefoot. Because it is hard to imagine the embroidery without connecting it to the item (except for chevrons), footwear manufacturing is a good way of expanding your embroidery services... Buy many questions arise when the embroiderer decides to begin decorating footwear. With what to embroider? On what to embroider? And what designs to choose? And if the answer to the first question lies within the area of knowledge of the equipment and materials used in machine embroidery, the answers to the other two relate more to the business acumen and understanding of the current fashion trends. 

    Embroidery on footwear: Slippers 
    Embroidery on slippers may be considered the easiest. Slippers are always in demand because they are not durable, so an average person buys three pairs a year; and besides, the are designed in such a way that you may hoop them without any trouble. One of the advantages of embroidery on slippers is a small embroidery area, which allows you to quickly complete a big order. 

    Embroidery on footwear: Felt boots (valenki) 
    Recently the demand for felt boots increased due to the cold and snowy winter. Many people wear both the Russian valenki and the European-style felt boots with good-looking soles, modern design, an embroidered top and sometimes a zipper on the side, all of which makes them much more like fashionable high boots than the ethnic footwear and makes one wonder: can I do something like that? One should not forget the high boots. Embroidery on high boots will make them more valuable and special and simultaneously will give the others the opportunity to make some cash. 


    Embroidery on footwear: Hoops 
    Embroidery machines manufacturers, aiming at increasing the demand for their products and make them more significant than the rival analogs, produce various devices that allow making the machine embroidery of the complex items simpler. Shoe Clamp, manufactured by EMS/Hoop Tech for Tajima embroidery machines, may be named as an example. 

    Hoop manufacturers supposed that the embroidery would in most cases be of a small size and would be positioned on the right side of the item.
    Nowadays machine embroidery hoop size for embroidery on footwear is 2.54x6 cm, and the price is a bit too high for a small-scale embroiderer, but maybe sometime in the future... 
    I haven't figured out for what embroidery machines these hoops are intended hope you'll be so kinds as to help me with that. 
    If you don't own any modern commercial embroidery equipment, but I've managed to kindle your interest in embroidery on footwear, I recommend you to get acquainted with professionals. Among my Russian-speaking peers, there is quite a number of experts that embroider on high boots, felt boots and slippers, and I'm sure there is as much among out Western colleagues. If you are interested in how and where to use embroidery on footwear, welcome to our forum. 

    In-the-hoop: making Totoro

    By Irina, in Machine embroidery materials and technology, , 1 comment, 6,282 views
    Original text by Marina Belova 
    I continue my quest of embroidering fluffy toys on my embroidery machine. Last time I wrote about making a simple one piece stuffed teddy-bear. Today I decided to make the task harder and embroider paws and several other details separately. 
    A couple of days ago I came across a pattern in a Chinese magazine called Pomelo Handicraft, and this pattern seemed suitable for making what I wanted — a Japanese animation character Totoro. So I decided to make it. Here's what I got: 

    This toy was created entirely on my embroidery machine, except for one short side seam (about 3 cm), which was made by hand. In order to make my Totoro, I needed to create 2 embroidery design files. 
    One for ears, paws, and tail: 

    And another one for embroidering different parts and sewing them all together: 

    I picked several pieces of gray stretchy velvet as the main fabric for my Totoro's coat. For applique on the belly — the faux fur cuttings, and for the teeth applique — the ordinary calico. 
    My first step was to embroider the flap pieces of the toy. In order to do this I hooped the velvet, folded it in two with the pile surface on the inside: 

    Then I started the machine and stitched the details: 

    My subsequent operations were trimming the details along the perimeter (I had stitched a zig-zag outline) and turn them the right side up. I should mark that it was not easy to do the latter, for these details are very small. And so I decided not to stuff them, but to leave as they were: 

    Now I needed to hoop a tear-away stabilizer: 

    After that I embroidered an outline: 

    Attached the velvet to the stabilizer with its right side up: 

    Then I stitched the velvet along the perimeter to prevent it from peeling off and embroidered the eyes and the outline of the first applique — the mouth: 

    Now I position the fabric for the mouth: 

    I stitch and trim it and enclose it in a satin column border. I will skip these steps as the obvious ones. Immediately after that I stitch the outline for the belly: 

    Place a piece of fur for the belly applique: 

    After having completed this applique comes the most important part — positioning of the flap details. I placed them in accordance with the embroidered marks and tried to secure them with glue, which doesn't usually work well on velvet: 

    Then I stitch these details to the fabric: 

    Now I cover this with another layer of velvet the wrong side up for the back part of the toy: 

    And after that comes the finishing touch: sewing the parts together. I left a small opening on the side through which I would stuff the toy with a filler: 

    That is all; now I may take the hoop off. I trimmed the fabric along the perimeter in accordance with the outline, embroidered at the very beginning: 

    Then I removed the stabilizer and turned the yet two-dimensional Totoro up front: 

    The rest is easy — I stuff the toy and sew up the opening. But you may go without stuffing if you like. I think that I should have made the hind-paws, too, for he looks somewhat strange. But I'll leave it for the next time. 

    In the hoop: decorating a hair tie

    By Irina, in Machine embroidery materials and technology, , 0 comments, 3,315 views
    Original text by Marina Belova 
    Recently I allowed my mind to dwell upon the days of my youth, when hair ties just appeared on the market. So I decided to embroider an ordinary hair tie, particularly as my hair is now long enough to make a ponytail. 
    Frankly speaking, at first I scratched my head over how to do it. And why? Simply because would it be my professional machine, I would join the hair and the embroidery with a few stitches without hesitation, but on home embroidery machine the trick wouldn't pass (I've tried). And then it suddenly dawned upon me. It's very simple — you don't need to stitch the hair tie, but instead the ribbon, to which the tie is attached. 
    Here it is what I got: 

    The back side: 

    The emoticon may look big, but is only 4 cm in diameter. I created the simplest possible design, almost like the one for the chevron, but with an additional stitching that allowed me to cover the back side of the emoticon with the fabric. The overall stitch count was 3200. 

    All I needed for my embroidery was a hair tie, a piece of fabric and a ribbon: 

    I hooped only the tear-away stabilizer: 

    The basting stitch came first, as always. 

    Then I placed my fabric in the hoop and began to embroider the design on the right side:
     
    Here's the emoticon already embroidered: 

    Then I took the hoop off the machine and trimmed all of the extra fabric around my embroidery, then turned it the wrong side up. And that was where the most interesting part began. I sprayed the wrong side of the fabric with a temporary spray adhesive and placed the hair tie with a ribbon that had been run through it, in accordance with the embroidered nose so as to hit the center. I secured the ends of the ribbon with a paper adhesive: 

    I placed a hair tie into the hoop so that it would not shift during the embroidery, and stuck a piece of adhesive tape to it so that it didn't get under the border. All this thing turned out to be quite puffy, so I even doubted that my home machine could cope with it. 
    Then I put my hoop into the machine and encircled the emoticon with a zig-zag border, along which I decided to cut both the hair tie and the ribbon on the wrong side. The machine struggled over it, but succeeded: 

    I take hoop off again and trimmed all the extras. But I didn't remove the adhesive tape: 

    After that, I changed the color of my under thread to black — the color of my border. 

    Then I put the hoop back into the machine and embroidered the border: 

    This is the wrong side: 

    I unstuck the adhesive tape, and the hair tie was uncovered: 

    After that, all I had left was to remove the stabilizer and all the other leftovers (threads, stabilizer fibers, etc.) 

    And this is how it looks from the front: 




    How to make cutwork on your embroidery machine

    By Irina, in Machine embroidery materials and technology, , 1 comment, 4,850 views
    Original text by Nadezhda Agureeva 
    Broidery.ru magazine 
    Machine embroidered cutwork (also called richelieu) is not that different from the free-motion cutwork. The smoothness of the satin column is determined at the stage of the design creation, and it's within your power to preserve the beauty of this particular kind of embroidery with the help of careful hooping and stabilizing. 
    Unlike the free-motion embroidery, the machine embroidery has both advantages and disadvantages. On one hand, there is a vast majority of beautiful ready designs as well as the automation of the embroidery process, and on the other hand, there is a high possibility of encountering a poor quality design. 
    The embroidery process, for our purpose, may be divided into four steps: fabric preparation, basting, cutting out pieces of fabric and then making bridges, nets, and satin columns. 
    Fabric preparation 
    The preparation of the fabric consists of choosing the right type of stabilizer and careful hooping. As the fabric often shrinks after washing, I recommend washing or steaming the fabric in advance so as not to damage the embroidery. Choose your bobbin thread with attention. On some of the home embroidery machines automatic thread tensioner just doesn't work as it should, therefore, the underthread may show on the right side. I recommend using the bobbing thread of the same color as the main one. 
    Basting 
    As a rule, the designs are created with the consideration that the machine should make a stop after stitching the outline so as to give the embroiderer a possibility of cutting out pieces. If you have an embroidery editor, watch the whole process in the embroidery simulator. Pay attention to the number of colors in your design. Home embroidery machines make a stop when a color change is needed; therefore, your design should contain two colors at least. If your design is monochromatic, you will have to follow the embroidery process closely so that to manually stop the machine when it is needed. 
    Making holes 
    Pay attention to cutting out pieces of fabric when you're making your cutwork. Be patient and prepare the sharp scissors. When doing the cutting out take your hoop off the machine, but, in any case do not unhoop the fabric! When making holes, try to avoid shifting of the fabric in the hoop. Because the final step of your embroidery process depends on that. 
    A hole made correctly will guarantee an almost 100% success. 
    Finalizing 
    Having cut out all of the pieces, proceed to the final step — making bridges. This process is automatic, so it won't require your involvement. 
    Before embroidering on your main fabric or item, make a test piece first. And while you're doing it, pay attention to how the thread lies on the fabric, and what steps of your embroidery process cause your difficulties. If you chose a proper stabilizer and hooped the fabric correctly, but the quality of the sample did not satisfy you, you'd probably better choose another design.

    Making cutwork on your embroidery machine: the process 
    We will need the fabric, threads and two kinds of stabilizer (the topping and the backing).  Stick your backing to the wrong side of the fabric. If you wrong side is unlined, I advise you to use a tear-away stabilizer.  Carefully hoop your fabric. Make the fabric drum tight and tighten the screw. 
    Place the hoop into your embroidery machine and start the embroidery.  After having stitched the basting stitch the machine should make a stop. To do this, you need to choose a design that contains at least two colors. Take your hoop off the machine. In any case, do not unhoop the fabric.  Take any sharp instrument and make a small cut in it, in order to cut the holes with scissors later. 
    Make the holes in it using scissors. Try not to distort your fabric and catch the stitches that are already there.  To continue our work, we'll need water soluble topping.  Carefully pin the stabilizer to the fabric. 
    Is is not necessary to use the stabilizer for the entire embroidery area. Just covering the areas you're going to cut out will be sufficient. This will prevent stitches from sinking in places where the fabric is missing.  Insert your hoop back into the machine and proceed with your embroidery.  Remove the jump stitches after the completion. The wrong side should be as neat as the right side! 
    Rinse your ready item with water, in order to remove the topping from the right side of the embroidery and the backing leftovers from the wrong side. 
    Having completed this task, remove the leftovers of the backing from the wrong side of the embroidery and iron the item. 

    This mysterious leather

    By Irina, in Machine embroidery materials and technology, , 0 comments, 3,062 views
    Original text by Marina Belova 
    Leather, faux leather, chamois and vinyl are, in my opinion, the most mysterious fabrics for machine embroidery. There are a lot of materials on the subject on the Web. And these materials are so different that you could be lost in it. The only way left is, as usual, to collect knowledge and practice. 
    All leather-like materials, as well as fabrics, vary in weight, thickness, texture, density, hardness and softness. However, there are several things they have in common: 
    These materials will not tolerate any mistakes — if the needle has penetrated the fabric, the hole stays visible forever.  There may also be hoop burn.  Leather-like materials are perforated along the perimeter (where the needle had penetrated the fabric).  All of these factors pose their own requirements to the various parts of the embroidery process on leather-like materials, such as the choice of needles and stabilizers, ways of hooping etc. 

    I'll name the main ones for you: 
    I haven't seen two needle choice recommendations alike. There is a huge variety of needle points: some people advise to use a light ball point, some — a normal round point, and some — a narrow wedge point or even a round point with triangular tip. There are so many of them that it makes your head spin. I guess, I'll have to figure this out myself, by trial and error, as usual.  As for the choice of a stabilizer, everything seems to be more or less clear: average tear-away, average or dense cut-away or adhesive paper (like Filmoplast), according to the type of fabric. An ordinary fusible interfacing has been suggested for additional leather stabilization.  I've seen the following recommendations on the hooping of the leather-like materials: wrap the hoop in a soft fabric and loosen the hoop screw to a point where the hoop won't be leaving any traces on the fabric, but so that the material will still be pulled tightly. If the fabric cannot be hooped, all that is left is to stick it onto the adhesive paper. An alternative hooping method is to use a special magnetic hoop (for those who own it, of course).  You can use the ordinary (#40) or thicker (#30) threads.  To prevent gaps, the embroidery speed should be lowered. As for cleaning and oiling of the machine, you'll need to do it after every two or three items.  Creating machine embroidery designs for leather and similar materials is believed to be a job for experienced digitizers. But how can you gain experience, if you don't try? Therefore, let's dip into a variety of tips from the Western gurus of machine embroidery design digitizing.  Creating a machine embroidery design for leather is different from creating a design for other fabrics because you have to control the number of needle penetrations that can be done in many ways. That's because the question posed before a digitizer is a very serious one: how to avoid perforation. 
    The main rules of creating a design are: 
    increase the fill stitch length and the underlay stitch length to 4—5 mm.  The width of satin columns should be no less that 3—4 mm.  Lower the density of satin stitches by 30—35%. Some people even recommend lowering the density by 50%.  Lower the fill density by 20—25%. On the use of understitching there is a difference of opinions. Some people say that all of the understitching should be spared, the other ones — that it should stay in place. And even more than that — they recommend increasing their density because the finishing layer of satin stitches, in this case, is lighter. At the same time, you should place the understitching within the outline and away from the finishing layer of stitches. 
    You should avoid: 
    small elements  a large number of fills (you may use an appliqué instead).  This is all, in a nutshell. And now it's time to practice. 

    Saving up on stitch count

    By Irina, in Machine embroidery materials and technology, , 0 comments, 6,425 views
    Original text by Marina Belova 
    Before now, I've never thought about reducing the stitch count in order to cut production costs. But now it's time to begin. In addition to the economic reasons that may be expressed through the formula: lower stitch count = embroidery process acceleration, reducing the stitch count makes the design look better. And it reduces the distortion of the fabric, too. 
    There are many ways of lowering stitch count in the design without sacrificing the quality of the embroidery; for example: 
    Increasing the lengths of the underlay and connector stitches  Increasing the stitch length in the objects that contain split stitches (satin stitches with patterns, fills)  Lowering the density of the satin stitches and fill stitches  Replacing the standard monolithic fill patterns with motif stitches  Making the design simpler: replacing the satin stitch outlines around the Tatami fills and with the running stitch outlines and removing the unnecessary details.  Placing an appliqué in the large surface areas, outlined with zigzag stitches  Using a thicker thread, which allows to substantially decrease the density  Deliberately changing the design so that a part of it will not be embroidered. For example, deleting the background fill so that the fabric will work as a backing.  Reducing the number of trims and color changes  Replacing some pre-digitized fills for the ones digitized manually  All of these methods are based on changing the design manually and not with the help of various options in the software like Outline Processor or Process. 
    Let's look at some of these recommendations more closely: 
    1. Underlay stitches and connector stitches lengths 
    By default the running stitch even in different editors is 2—3 mm long. This is the perfect length for the outlines, but it is too short for the understitching. Without any hesitation, you can make the underlay stitches 4—5 mm long, and that will lower the underlay stitch count by 40—50%. This will not work well with the narrow stitch columns less than 2 mm wide. But in other cases, you should not lose the opportunity to increase stitch length. 
    2. Density 
    It's better not to use the dynamically varying stitch density in order to save up on stitch count, but set the right density value manually, in accordance with the size, color and type of the fabric. But to do that you'll have to work hard, using both your hands and brains because every object containing stitches of varying size needs to be split into several pieces. Each one of these parts will have its individual embroidery parameters. 
    If you have more that one layer of stitches, you'd better not forget to lower the density of every new layer by no less 10%. 
    It's also advisable to increase the fill stitch length by at least 25% as compared to the default value. But you'll need to do a test run after a change like that. 
    3. Trimming and color change 
    One should reduce the number of trims and color changes. All of these operations require time that equals to embroidering 130 and 65 stitches, respectfully. Why so many? Because the machine lowers its speed before every trim, and then has to accelerate again. 
    Besides, every trim calls for the tie-off at the beginning and the end of the objects. And even taking into consideration that a tie-off contains only a few stitches, but, if you have lots of them, it means additional stitches. 
    4. Making the design simpler 
    The easiest you can do is remove the satin stitch outlines or replace them with the running stitch ones. You should be careful doing this: running stitch outlines are considered the most complex of all. It is extremely difficult for them to hit the right spot, without gapping and overlapping. Difficult, but not impossible. 
    The machine embroidery design of your choice may contain a large number of details. You should define the size of these details when assessing the image. For example, it is recommended to embroider details that are less than 1 mm in size with running stitches or remove them altogether. 
    5. Replacing the pre-digitized fills with the ones digitized manually 
    Not so long ago I had a vital necessity of saving the stitches, for we outsourced the embroiderers for a huge project. And the embroiderer, as you know, is paid per thousand stitches. Therefore, we needed to reduce the stitch count to fit the budget. 
    My design had 83000 stitches. So I had to select the elements manually, throwing away everything I could spare. I managed to save the largest number of stitches by manually changing the motif patterns. The pattern was ultimately simple: one layer of running stitch curves. 
    So, I decided to get rid of the already existing pattern, add a new one manually, and digitize it with the running stitch. The resulting cut in the stitch number was about 20-25% for every object. What was especially good was that when you drew the stitches manually on the already existing pattern, you could see in what places you could do without it at all, and lower the stitch count even more. Thanks to these easy manipulations I managed to save about 12000 stitches. 

    So much for you stitch count algorithms. Often your own two hands are better that any automatic device. The only disadvantage of this method is that it takes a bit more of your time. 
    P.S.: I just remembered another method of saving the stitches, which I use. I slightly move the edges of the fills. This option has a different name in different editors. For example, in Stitch Era, there is Exclusion Margin, and in Tajima the similar option is called Critical Zone. With it help you may eliminate about 3% of stitches by simply moving the fill pattern 1 mm from the edge, the alteration being almost invisible to the eye. 

    Together with the aforementioned methods, it will help you to make the design much simpler and lower the production costs. 

    Matching the fabric and the stabilizer

    By Irina, in Machine embroidery materials and technology, , 0 comments, 5,237 views
    Original text by Marina Belova 
    Choosing a right stabilizer for a particular fabric is important for every embroiderer. If you want to know what a stabilizer is, what kinds of stabilizers are there and where they can be used, along with the other stuff, click here. 
    Wrong stabilizer plays has a great impact on the embroidery, for it is one of the reasons for various technical defects, which nobody wants. 
    Below are the recommendations on matching a particular type of fabric with a particular kind of stabilizer, which I found in various sources. You always need to have some kind of guide, if only a short one, which will give you a hint to where you stand and where to go from there. And then, to find a right kind of stabilizer for your type of fabric. 
    Obviously, one should choose a stabilizer according to the fabric qualities, such as: thickness, density, quality, type and so on. The basic rule goes as follows: the more tightly-woven and stable the fabric is, the lighter stabilizer it needs. And vice versa. In case you've found a right match you'll need only 1 layer of stabilizer (this is true in 99,9% of all cases). 
    The fabric
     
    The stabilizer
     
    Acrylic fabric
     
    Cut-away
     
    Acetate fabric
     
    Cut-away
     
    Velvet
     
    Tear-away adhesive stabilizer (Filmoplast) or heat-away stabilizer (Thermogaze)
     
    Corduroy
     
    Tear-away for the thick fabrics and cut-away for the thin ones
     
    Vynil
     
    Tear-away
     
    Felt
     
    Cut-away
     
    Gabardine
     
    Cut-away
     
    Gauzy fabric
     
    Dense water soluble for the backing and thin water soluble for the topping
     
    Jersey
     
    Cut-away
     
    Denim
     
    Tear-away or no stabilizer
     
    Chamois
     
    Cut-away for the thin fabrics and tear-away for thick ones
     
    Fake fur
     
    Tear-away for the backing and water-soluble film for the topping
     
    Damask
     
    Cut-away
     
    Leather
     
    Cut-away for the thin fabrics and tear-away for thick ones
     
    Lycra
     
    Spunbond
     
    Linen
     
    Cut-away with temporary spray adhesive
     
    Terry cloth
     
    Cut-away or tear-away for the backing and water-soluble film for the topping
     
    Muslin
     
    Cut-away with temporary spray adhesive
     
    Nylon
     
    Tear-away adhesive (Filmoplast), heat-away (Thermogaze) or high-quality tear-away stabilizer
     
    Voluminous knitwear
     
    Cut-away with temporary spray adhesive
     
    Organdy
     
    Cut-away adhesive
     
    Organza
     
    Water soluble or high-quality tear-away
     
    Sailcloth
     
    Cut-away for the thin fabrics and tear-away for thick ones
     
    Brocade
     
    Tear-away
     
    Percale
     
    Cut-away
     
    Pique
     
    Cut-away for the backing and water-soluble film for the topping
     
    Velour
     
    Tear-away adhesive (Filmoplast)
     
    Poplin
     
    Tear-away or cut-away, depending on the fabric thickness
     
    Sateen
     
    Cut-away
     
    Sateen
     
    Cut-away with temporary spray adhesive or tear-away adhesive (Filmoplast)
     
    Spandex
     
    Cut-away with temporary spray adhesive or tear-away adhesive (Filmoplast), spunbond
     
    Woolen cloth
     
    Cut-away
     
    Tweed
     
    Cut-away
     
    Knitwear (T-shirts)
     
    Cut-away, tear-away or spunbond, depending on the quality of knitted fabric
     
    Flannel
     
    Cut-away
     
    Fleece
     
    Cut-away
     
    Canvas
     
    Tear-away or no stabilizer
     
    Silk
     
    Tear-away
     
    Chiffon
     
    Tear-away
     

    I want to remind everyone that the aforementioned matches are the basic recommendations and not the rules. 
    What is also interesting is that a stabilizer is often replaced with other, cheaper, materials for cost reasons — the means the manufacturers strictly advise against (naturally). For example, you may see a stabilizer replaced with the printing paper, the embroidery spunbond with the building one, and water-soluble film with polyethylene. There is a lot of information about it on the Web. 
    I decided to check if water soluble film replacement was at all possible. You can read about this experiment here. 

    Why does the embroidery pull and lose its shape?

    By Irina, in Machine embroidery materials and technology, , 0 comments, 4,198 views
    Original text by Marina Belova 
    I've already written about the various defects in machine embroidery, but today I want to dwell on these illustrative examples of the particular defects known as puckering of the embroidery and pulling of the fabric: 
    01 

    02 

    03 

    I'd like to remind everyone that the reasons for getting such a discouraging result are these several factors: 
    The design. A multi-layered design of high density and stitch count, with lots of details and fill pattern at various angles, is one of the main reasons for puckering of both the embroidery and the fabric around it. 
    The designs of high density warp the embroidery and the fabric around because we artificially add threads to the already existing fibers, which are thus moved apart and become distorted. Different stitch angles and different stitch lengths lead to the multi-directional push and pull distortion, which is more difficult to correct by the push and pull compensation. It is therefore considered that the designs with unidirectional stitches (for example, horizontal ones) and simple outlines are embroidered better that the others. 
    The fabric. The less stable the fabric is, the more prone to distortion it will be. 
    Everything seems to be clear: don't break these rules, and the embroidery will look wonderful. But let's see what rules I've broken in the past to achieve the results I've achieved, falling into the familiar traps. The obvious mistakes in digitizing and embroidery are marked red: 
    Factors

    1

    2

    3

    The design

    high-quality cutwork design of low density

    design of high density, with superfluous understitching

    design of high density

    The fabric

    Thin and stretchy suiting cloth

    knitwear pique

    T-shirt knitwear

    Stabilizer

    not used

    used

    used

    Speed embroidery

    700 rpm

    700 rpm

    700 rpm

    Tension

    standard

    standard

    standard

    Thread

    rayon

    polyester

    polyester

    Needle

    #70

    #70-75

    #70-75

    Hooping

    correctly framed was correct, but the frame was too big for the design

    the fabric was not hooped, just sprayed with temporary spray adhesive and stuck onto the stabilizer

    the fabric was not hooped, just sprayed with temporary spray adhesive and stuck onto the stabilizer

    Summary: if I tried to stabilize the fabric in any way, the result would be much better. To say nothing about finding the design parameters that would be good for this type of fabric. 
    Apart from the factors specified, which directly influence the embroidery process, a design might be severely distorted after washing or dry-cleaning, however good it looks right after the embroidery. Sadly, the manufacturers don't take this into account. 
    I've often seen embroidery results (including mine) that looked horrible after the washing: towels, bed linen, clothes and other items made of various textiles. Not always could they be returned to a more or less good-looking shape. 
    How to conquer it? Frankly, I don't know. This defect can be partly removed by ironing. But only in case the pull is a very light one. I've also read many times in various sources that the best aid in preventing the post-embroidery distortion is washing and pressing the item prior to the embroidery But it is not always possible, is it? Therefore, the best way of avoiding such a nuisance and keeping the shape of the embroidery is using a dense cut-away stabilizer. Or am I wrong? 

    Embroidering lace

    By Irina, in Machine embroidery materials and technology, , 2 comments, 5,613 views
    Original text by Marina Belova 
    In my opinion, FSL is one of the most popular things in machine embroidery. Especially judging from the all the hype on the forums and in numerous discussions: what, where and how to embroider. Read it — and you'll think that it is immensely complex, and not within the scope of anyone's ability. 
    Today I managed to make a few samples with different stabilizers at last, in order to find out whether it was really so difficult and whether one needed special skills for it. 
    I chose 3 designs for my experiment. I deliberately made them different in style. 
    The first design was from Zundt. The size was not big — 9.7х9.7 cm. But the stitch count was impressive — 28500. 

    The second design was from Adorable Ideas. The size, too, was not large, 8х8, and the stitch count was 12200. 

    The third design was also from Adorable Ideas. The size, again, was not too big, 10.3х10.4 cm, and the stitch count was 12500. 

    These designs got into my hands as the result of a strange accident. I ordered some CD's from the manufacturer, they got the whole thing mixed up and sent me these designs instead. Sending them back would cost a bundle. So I kept them; now they gather dust on my shelf. I became the owner of designs I didn't need. Every CD contains from 53 to 55 designs in various formats. Each one of them is in the *.emb format that allows making changes. Even our Western colleagues make mistakes sometimes. 
    But two of those designs came in handy. 
    I chose 3 stabilizers for my backing: 
    Gunold Solvy 80 (40 microns) water-soluble film  Gunold Solvy Fabric (40 g/m2) water-soluble stabilizer  Gunold Thermogaze — a heat-away stabilizer  I decided to use one layer of each. You won't know anything until you embroider. 
    I used an ordinary polyester Fufu's as the upper thread. The bobbin thread remained standard. 
    The needle was standard, too: #70 with SES needlepoint. 
    So I hooped the film and decided to embroider the design that had the highest stitch count and density. This stabilizer seemed to me the most reliable of all. 

    I embroidered the entire design on the film, and almost nothing was cut out (except in 2 places). Nothing was shifted at all. 

    Therefore, even one of this film can be used. 
    The only things I did not like about this design were the high stitch count and the abundance of the short stitches. Thread breakage occurred exactly on these short stitches, which did not happen when embroidering the other designs with the same threads. In my opinion, this design should be scaled before embroidery without stitch recounting. At least by 5%. 
    I decided to use water-soluble stabilizer for the second design, the most open-worked of all three, considering it to be the flimsiest. It stretched well in one direction, which I didn't at all like, and I thought that there would be shifting. 

    This is the ready design: nothing has shifted or lost because of the cutting. Everything came out splendid. 

    Thermogaze was third in the line, and it had issued a strange crackling noise when hooping, but I did not notice any tearing. 

    The third design was embroidered wonderfully. Though I thought that the needle would damage it. 

    When I unhooped it, I immediately saw what that crackling noise that I heard during the embroidery hoop meant — the thermogaze between the rings tore while hooping. That reminds me that I should be more careful while hooping. 

    Now it's time to remove the stabilizers. 
    I put the water soluble materials into the bowl filled with warm water and rinsed carefully. 
    Water-soluble stabilizer washed off quickly and without traces — this is cutwork, after all. 

    As for the film, it required some effort. The design was dense, and the film took a long time to solve. 

    But neither first nor the second lace didn't lose it shape after having been washed and dried. 

    Now it was the turn of the last of the lace samples, embroidered on thermogaze. 
    I put it between the 2 layers of thermogaze and turned the temperature of the iron to the maximum. Then I just left the iron where the lace was.
    For about one minute and a half, I think. 

    Then I decided to see what happened. The thermogaze became darker. I touched it slightly, and it broke instantly. 

    I took the lace and began to crumple it — the thermogaze easily came off and crumbled. The lace became clean and extremely soft to the touch. 
    This is what was left of thermogaze: 

    This piece of lace maintained its shape, too. 

    Frankly speaking, I liked thermogaze most of all — there was less trouble with removing it. 
    There is nothing difficult in embroidering items like these ones. I think that the whole matter of whether the result will be satisfactory or not depends only on the design quality. 
    Of course, I cannot claim the integrity of the test. I should have embroidered one design with each stabilizer, and compare them after that. But now, when the embroidery is completed, I think that I would get good results anyway. 

    Machine embroidery with a woolen thread: in search for ideas

    By Irina, in Machine embroidery materials and technology, , 1 comment, 11,364 views
    Original text by Marina Belova 
    I'm currently raking my brains about embroidery with a woolen thread, or, to be more precise, with an acrylic one — I want to embroider a very simple design on a pillow, black on the white-and-gold background. It will match the wallpaper and sofa in my room. Besides, if you embroider on wool with a woolen thread, the pillow will be agreeable to the touch, which is nice. Sadly, there is little information on embroidery with this type of thread, except the most basic one.
    It's not that I do not understand how to use it, but I still want to see how it looks in reality. Suddenly I have come across the Husqvarna Handlook Needlework design collection, which is imitating hand embroidery with woolen threads. The photos from this collection are very inspiring — they prompt you to try and embroider all of this yourself. And besides, it is always good for the brain to scrutinize someone else's design from every angle. 
    So I went through their files: took measures, counted stitched, chose a design and tried to create something like that myself. Judging from what I've seen, I've figured out that a design like this is based on a very simple principle — use of the motif stitches and satin stitches. The motif stitching, if I got it right, should resemble something like this: 

    I would never imagine anything like it for the woolen thread. All the basic principles of digitizing, like making longer stitches for thicker threads, are swept away by the length of connector stitches, which Husqvarna digitizers successfully use in their work. To see these nuances you need to study the works of other people, for there is always someone who knows more than you. I think I've already expanded this topic. 
    This is how my design looks: 

    My first sample with 1.5 mm long connector stitches turned out to be rather dense: 

    I reduced the density by increasing the connector stitch length to 2 mm, and got a much softer result: 

    It doesn't look very good, of course, but now it's clear that this technique requires another, simpler design and repeating of satin stitches several times at the same place is definitely unnecessary. I created a design: 

    Here it is already embroidered: 

    The result in not that bad, the only thing that disturbs me is that the connector stitches are visible between the repeating stitches, creating a so-called beaded border: But with a right type of the design everything will be good. Or you can hide this border by changing the angle of the connector stitches in relation to the next row of repeating stitches. But in this case the stitches should be done by hand, and I don't like the idea of it. 
    So I decided to return to the basics of the technique I set out to imitate. Having opened a book, I was surprised to see that the embroidery with woolen threads looks exactly the same as an ordinary one — satin stitches, running stitches, other decorative elements that are not available in machine embroidery. Although there is a similar stitch. It is called the Fly Stitch and is mostly used for small leaves. Below is the example taken from Trish Burr's book called Crewel and Surface Embroidery: 

    And then I got an idea of using 3 or 5 layers of satin stitches of low-density instead of motif stitches so that to avoid this border. For is will not make all the elements look better. 
    In order to try I created a design with 3 layers of stitches of 1.5 mm density: 

    Here's the sample — columns look monolithic. 

    I think that if one lowers density even more, to 2 mm, it will be a good imitation of hand embroidery. But the "border" technique will do for several kinds of designs. 
    Perhaps, someone will share their thoughts on embroidery with woolen threads? So we would not be reinventing the wheel. 
    Besides, today I found out that the tension of the acrylic thread should be increased. There won't be any breakages: everything looks splendid.
    But loose tensioning leads to "bird nesting". 
     

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